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CAUTION CHILDREN CROSSING: HOME, INTEGRATION NARRATIVES, AND
THE GENTLE WARRIOR, 1950-1965
by
Deborah Elizabeth Ramsey
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CRITICAL STUDIES)
May 2010
Copyright 2010 Deborah Elizabeth Ramsey

“Caution Children Crossing: Home, Integration Narratives, and the Gentle Warrior, 1950-1965” revolves around the image of the racialized child in post-World War II Cold War America. This child figure, along with themes of home, citizenship and compassion, in this historical period disclose what film and cultural scholar Steven Cohan claims is a crisis in masculinity. My project will support and expand upon Cohan’s work, yet reveal that it is a crisis in white masculinity and examine how the figure of the racialized child plays into the re-stabilization and reformation of white middle-class masculinity, as well as a remapping and remaking of racism in adult hegemonic culture. The project focuses on media narratives in post-World War II America, and inquires how the image of the child is exploited to maintain boundaries, a “structured blindness and opacity,” and to ultimately uphold a “possessive investment in whiteness,” particularly in a historical period in which the United States, and world, was experiencing a “shift” in the worldwide racial system. While examining an earlier period in American history, this project always keeps in mind that investigating the cultural strategies of the past can unearth how these residual cultural constructions and narratives are deployed in current political and cultural contexts to preserve the status quo; and hopefully this retrospective inquiry inspires new ways of envisioning the future without binaries and unjust logics.

CAUTION CHILDREN CROSSING: HOME, INTEGRATION NARRATIVES, AND
THE GENTLE WARRIOR, 1950-1965
by
Deborah Elizabeth Ramsey
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(CRITICAL STUDIES)
May 2010
Copyright 2010 Deborah Elizabeth Ramsey